Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder With Rosemary Garlic & Honey

This rosemary garlic and honey slow-cooked lamb shoulder is absolutely the best lamb roast I have ever prepared! Tender, melt-in-your-mouth meat on the inside, beautifully browned on the outside, and accompanied by a delicious caramelized sauce. This lamb recipe is ideal for weekends, Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving.

Best Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder Roast

Roasting meat is a favorite in my household, especially for special occasions like Christmas or Easter. While there are countless lamb roast recipes available, this one is truly the best I have come across.

The key to success lies in scoring the lamb with deep slits to allow the seasoning and rosemary to penetrate the meat thoroughly, along with inserting garlic cloves.

The lamb is slow-cooked in the oven with red wine and water to ensure it remains moist and to create a delectable pan sauce. After being covered with foil for over 2 hours, the lamb is generously drizzled with honey and then roasted uncovered for an additional 30 minutes.

The juices from the lamb and honey combine in the pan, reducing and caramelizing during cooking to produce the finest red wine, rosemary, and honey lamb sauce without any additional effort required.

This will be the centerpiece of my Christmas dinner, and I am eagerly anticipating sharing it with everyone. For this recipe, I used a 1.3 kg lamb shoulder, which is typically sufficient for 4-5 people, so I plan to roast two of these lamb shoulders during the holidays.

Ingredients For Lamb Roast

• Lamb shoulder – I used a small lamb shoulder weighing about 1.3 – 1.5kg (3 lbs), bone-in, which serves 4-5 people. For larger gatherings, you can use a bigger lamb shoulder or cook two in a large baking tray. See recipe notes for variations in measurements and cooking times. Boneless lamb shoulder can also be used, with a shorter cooking time.
• Rosemary – 5-6 large sprigs, chopped, or about 2 tablespoons of dried rosemary. Thyme can be a suitable substitute.
• Garlic – Plenty of garlic cloves, cut into long pieces for easy insertion into the meat.
• Seasoning – Salt, pepper, and smoked paprika to enhance the flavor.
• Honey – Any type of runny honey works well.
• Red wine – Adds flavor and acidity to the lamb gravy sauce.

How To Make My Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder

Find the detailed recipe instructions and nutritional information below. Follow these steps to prepare my slow-cooked lamb shoulder recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 356 F.
2. Pull the needles off the rosemary sprigs and chop them finely. Cut the garlic cloves lengthwise into pieces.
3. Place the lamb shoulder on a cutting board, score the top with deep slits, and rub with olive oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and chopped rosemary. Insert garlic pieces into the slits.
4. Add water and red wine to a roasting pan, place the lamb shoulder inside, cover with foil, and bake for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
5. Remove the foil, drizzle juices over the lamb, generously coat with honey, and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes until browned and caramelized.
6. Rest the lamb, then serve with the pan sauce.

Recipe tip: Consider adding pre-boiled potatoes or carrots to the pan during the final stage of cooking for extra flavor.

More Lamb Recipes To Try

Full Recipe

For the complete list of ingredients, detailed instructions, and nutritional breakdown, refer to the recipe card below. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or try this recipe. Don’t forget to rate it for others to find easily.